Ratti Ram vs Union of India

R.L. Anand, J.—Ratti Ram petitioner has filed the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and he has sought the directions of this Court in the nature of mandamus against the respondents that respondents be directed to release the benefit of disability pension to the petitioner.

The case set up by the petitioner is that he was enrolled in the army on 7.9.1963. He joined the army at the age of 20 years. He was quite hale and hearty. He was found medically fit by the Medical Board and there is no note given by the Medical Board that petitioner was suffering from disease of any kind. He served the army up to 14.2.1981 when he was invalidated out of service on medical ground and the petitioner was placed in medical category "EEE". The petitioner was given the benefit of service element but he was not given the benefit of disability pension. He served a legal notice on 14.7.1998 but no effect. Hence the present writ.

Notice of the writ petition was given to the respondents. In para No. 3 of the reply, the respondents submitted that Invalidating Medical Board assessed the disability "Hypertension" at the rate of 20% and Cerebral Embolism at 80%, both aggravated by the military service due to stress and strain of military service.

The case of the petitioner is that the disability pension was forwarded to the Chief Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension) who in consultation with the Medical Advisor, rejected the claim on the ground that the disability suffered by the petitioner was neither attributable nor aggravated by the military service. Hence the writ petition be dismissed.

I have heard Shri R.S. Sangwan, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Shri Mukesh Kaushik, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent and with their assistance have gone through the record of the case and in my opinion this writ must succeed because the objection with regard to the disease suffered by the petitioner has been raised by the CCDA who never got the opportunity to examine the petitioner. The Officer while sitting in the office has no jurisdiction to reject the claim of the disability pension, once the Medical Board had assessed the disability pension of a Jawan. Similarly, the Medical Advisor did not examine the petitioner before giving the opinion that the disease suffered by the petitioner is not attributable to the army service. The Release Medical Board is also a body of the Government and their opinion must prevail upon the CCDA because they were the persons who got the opportunity to examine the petitioner and on their physical examination the opinion was given that the petitioner suffered disability to the extent of 20%.

In this view of the matter, I allow this writ petition and give directions to the respondents to release the benefit of disability pension to the petitioner for a period of 38 months which shall be calculated immediately prior to the date of the filing of the present writ petition. Of course, the petitioner shall get the disability pension for the future. The amount of disability pension shall be released to the petitioner within three months from today, failing which, the petitioner shall also be entitled to interest at the rate of 12% per annum. There shall he no order as to costs.

Petition allowed.